550BN - No Sound via HDMI

I have Two SAMSUNG 32-inch Class LED Smart FHD TV 1080P.
They only have two HDMI Ports.
On each TV
1 port is an eARC is connected to a Yamaha SR C20A Soundbar.
On one TV the second port is connected to a BN550 HDMI Switch.
Connected to the BN550 Switch

  1. Apple TV 4K,
  2. Roku Ultra 4800,
  3. FireTV Stick 4K,
  4. Cable Box,
  5. UNASSIGNED.
    For some reason there has been no sound to the Soundbar via HDMI.

I have need help figuring out why.

I swapped out every HDMI Cable.
I have bought a second BN550 & switched BN550 boxes–same problem.
I have switched Soundbars. Same.
Reset settings of TV. No difference.
I have even switched in the TV from Guest Room. Same Problem.
If I connect devices directly to the TV, I get sound via HDMI to Soundbar.
If I use Optical cable from TV to Soundbar I get sound.

Note: Yesterday I got an Certified 8K HDMI Cable and it worked… for a few hours.

So what’s left to do?

No solution, sorry. Same problem. I have a Samsung Soundbar which support eARC. There are 2 HDMI Ports on the SoundBar… Input and Output. eARC is turned on everywhere. Output from the 550BN goes to the Soundbar Input. Soundbar Output goes to the TV eARC HDMI Port 2. Apple TV is on the 550BN HDMI Input 1. A Bell TV device is on the 550BN HDMI Input 2.

It all works once… but I get a message from the TV that no ARC device is connected and to please connect an ARC device to eARC HDMI 2. This means that some signal is not getting through from the 550BN through the Soundbar to the TV.

I’m using brand new high quality cables.

When I switch to the Bell TV device it works but I get the TV ARC warning message… although proper sound is coming from the Soundbar. However, when I switch back to Apple TV and the 550BN is switched to HDMI Input 1 then the TV gets no signal and asks for a Source.

So, the whole thing doesn’t really work. I’ve tried 2 550BN Switches with exactly the same bad results.

Going directly to the TV works through the 550BN works… sometimes. Going directly from a Source device to the Soundbar to the TV works all the time.

The 550BN Switch doesn’t really get it and messes up the signal coming from the Source.

Hi, David, and welcome to the forums.

For both is these issues, it’s possible that communicating through the 550BN is preventing the devices and the TV from agreeing on an audio format that all of the devices understand. If any of the devices you’re connecting to the 550BN can be set manually to PCM (or LPCM or Linear PCM) it may get the audio working, at least for that devices, and may help narrow down the source of the issue.

For soundbars that have both Input and Output ports, it shouldn’t normally be necessary for the the soundbar to be connected to an ARC port. A soundbar with an Input and Output port should be able to pull audio from the HDMI signal before passing it to the TV, in which case it doesn’t need to have it sent back again from the TV. It’s possible the soundbar is receiving mixed messages from the current configuration, so it’s worth trying either as-is, but in the non-ARC port of the TV, or with the 550BN connected directly to the TV’s non-ARC port and the soundbar connected alone to the ARC port.

Let us know if any of that helps.